This ‘taco cleanse’ helps you to get healthy just by eating a load of tacos

Cleanses are pretty big in the health-food sphere right now, but some are definitely more sought out than others. Whether it's souping, juicing or some other "diet" (does anyone remember the Master Cleanse where you basically pooed out your insides?), it seems like the conventional wisdom is that your insides are dirty and need to be cleaned with copious amounts of lemon juice and cayenne.

There's plenty of opinions and information out there about the ins and outs of cleansing; specifically, when you're cleansing to lose weight. The general consensus is that if you're not a celebrity with plenty of time on their hands and a team of professional nutritionists and personal trainers to point you in the right direction, most "cleanses" are pretty bad for you. I can tell you that for free.

This is because while you may see a drop in weight at the start, during a cleanse you completely deplete your body of nutrients, minerals and other useful things your body needs to be healthy and lose weight.

As soon as you're off your cleanser of choice, your body will demand everything it's lost and more - causing you to put on more weight than you had before you started. Lucky for you, there's a new fad out that I think is here to stay. The diet is called the taco cleanse and for the first time, we might actually be able to stick to something.

First things first, the taco cleanse is vegan, and that's part of the reason it's actually healthy. While it would be nice to think you could eat carnitas, beef and chicken tacos to your heart's content, that would actually do more harm than good. Sticking to a plant-based diet is a great way to get your eating habits in line with your health goals.

The idea for this still very tempting diet comes from a cookbook called “The Taco Cleanse: The Tortilla-Based Diet Proven to Change Your Life.” It was published a while back, and has since garnered a lot of headlines and some devotees. Of the thousands who have tried it, the responses have been overwhelmingly positive. Word has it that Jennifer Aniston bought the cookbook as soon as she heard about it.

There is a catch, however. The book doesn't claim to necessarily help with weight loss, but it does promise other health benefits such as lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It's up to you to truly reap the benefits of the taco cleanse with good portion control and a healthy amount of exercise. This is made a lot easier when you're stuffing yourself with all kinds of good-for-you vegetables and plant-based proteins like legumes - I think you're certain to lose a few pounds.

The taco cleanse brings back the fun of eating well. What's even better is that people don't feel deprived of anything on this cleanse compared to other bland, restrictive diets. In keeping with the light-hearted approach to eating, the taco cleanse even prescribes drinking margaritas. They're rom the recipe book, of course, but yeah - the margaritas have booze in them.

One of the book's authors, Stephanie Bogdanich, says “We can become so obsessed with cleansing and ‘perfect’ diets that we develop eating disorders or at least spend an unnecessary amount of our lives worrying about filling our diets with righteousness.”

The cookbook will teach you how to make your own tortillas in addition to giving you tons of taco recipe ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Though the cleanse is meant to be anywhere from a week to 30 days, you can certainly adapt it into your regular eating pattern. Maybe even add some cheese to make it a bit more appealing. It's not quite vegan that way, but being a vegetarian isn't so bad.